TBB Best of Web: Greatest Art Thief, Future of Basketball, No Investing Laws, The Future, Top Global Brands

We bring you another edition of the awesome TBB Best of Web links: Introduce you to the greatest art thief, meet the future of basketball branding, teach you that there are no investing laws, talk about the future and where we are going, see the top global brands since 2000 and watch The Boat, no it is not the Love Boat!

Wow…what a story about this guy! When you just can’t quit doing something…you know, it’s like blogging lol. But this one is, well, criminal! So much time in jail…only to get out and go back to stealing art. So sad to find out what happened to it at the end, so sad! I am not going to ruin the story for you, take some time to read it. If you are interested. It’s a freeee country!

I see a movie coming…

Stéphane Breitwieser robbed nearly 200 museums, amassed a collection of treasures worth more than $1.4 billion, and became perhaps the most prolific art thief in history. And as he reveals to GQ’s Michael Finkel, how Breitwieser managed to do all this is every bit as surprising as why.

If you are into the NBA, branding, social media, marketing, fashion and whatever turns you on these days…this IS the read, wow!

On social media, people want to connect with people — not companies. Likewise, people increasingly want to connect with stars — not teams.

History will remember The Decision as a decade-defining event, a pivotal moment, destined for a permanent spot in the history books. [Really? I am going to remember it as one of the biggest douche bag events ever instead!]

The NFL and MLB have doubled down on piracy and copyright restrictions. They go after sites and social media users who post video without permission. The NBA though, does the opposite — the floodgates are an astute marketing strategy. Instead of issuing copyright restrictions, the NBA uses YouTube technology to identify game highlights, and when they do, they profit from the advertising. It’s a win-win for fans and the league. [Well, is it a coincidence then that the NBA is blowing every pro league away lately? Nope!]

Today, the NBA is led by a clever social media usage and a roster of shining stars with worldwide appeal. That, though, wasn’t always the case. [We undervalue the importance of leadership in building a great brand. Case in point? TBB…Bwahahaha. No, okay, seriously. Article goes through NBA’s history and how far it has come! Same goes with the quality of leadership in leading countries like Venezuela, Greece, etc and of course companies…]

If you are interested in the world of personal finance and investing in general this is a must read! It opens with an amazing excerpt from an interview of “famed investor” Howard Marks:

You have to understand that there are no physical laws at work in investing. And the future is uncertain, and vague, and random. And psychology dominates.

Richard Feynman said, “Physics would be much harder if electrons had feelings.” You come in the room, you flip up the switch, and the lights go on. Every time! Why is that? Because the electrons flow from the switch to the lights. They never flow the other way. They never go on strike. They never fall asleep. They never say, ‘Ah today I don’t feel like flowing from the switch to the light.’ That’s physical science.

You have to understand the distinction between your field [architecture] and the field of investing, where there are no laws. There are only tendencies.

I plead ignorance when it comes to market predictions! I always make the same one “It will fluctuate” and I am right 100% of the time woohoo! When another market guru/moron comes out and shouts that a crash is imminent I always counter with “Day and time please!”. Which is of course never answered so I then tell them to STFU! 🙂

Marks’ comment highlights how there are no secret laws at work in markets. X will not always cause Y. Old patterns break, new patterns emerge, then those patterns break. Rinse. Repeat.

So what are these tendencies?

Stocks Will Provide Long-Term Positive Returns

Higher Returns Do Not Come Without Volatility

Markets Occasionally Crash and Recover

Cheap Stocks and Rising Stocks Tend to Outperform The Rest

A few more excerpts that stand out:

…stock markets experienced at least one annual decline of at least 37%. More importantly, world equities, which represent a diverse set of countries, declined by 41% in 2008.

Large crashes and volatility help explain why equities have a positive real long-term return. You are being compensated for taking risk.

…the only law in investing: everything is determined by your own behavior. Everything comes back to how you react to information. This isn’t about numbers, it’s about psychology. [YEEEEEEEES!]

Just a few years ago Yuval Noah Harari was an obscure Israeli historian with a knack for playing with big ideas. Then he wrote Sapiens, a sweeping, cross-disciplinary account of human history that landed on the bestseller list and remains there four years later. Like Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, Sapiens proposed a dazzling historical synthesis, and Harari’s own quirky pronouncements—“modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history”— made for compulsive reading. The book also won him a slew of high-profile admirers, including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg.

There is A LOT here. It makes for a very interesting reading. I am not going to post videos here cutting up food items with credit cards so I can pump you with them plastic affiliate links or pretend I am so excited about some moronic shocking video to get you to click to increase my page views/advertising/MONEY…My blog is just NOT that type of blog okay! At the same time one day I am going to get tired doing all this on a what amounts to be non profit humanitarian basis but…lets leave the whining for a post midweek okay 🙂

To give you a glimpse of what the interview is about, here is the first question and answer:

What’s different about this moment in history?

What’s different is the pace of technological change, especially the twin revolutions of artificial intelligence and bioengineering. They make it possible to hack human beings and other organisms, and then re-engineer them and create new life forms.

This is one those rare finds you find that just blow you away. Not sure how to describe this…animation, comics, web wizardry? Whatever it is…it is a gut wrenching story. With an extremely sad and also powerful, and shall I say, hopeful ending about humanity. And immigration. It all came together in the end. In an era of assholes singling out immigrants smh.

I am going to spare you content like “69 reasons I like the CSP card”…

Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

I m not sure where to talk about this but it appears that Emily Jablon has left MMS too. What? Was there a blog post where she said goodbye? Also a number of blog post she wrote in the past was deleted from the site.